Fate
by KaiMiiru
Summary: Set during KH3, Sora goes to wake up Ventus, and then Vanitas kidnaps Ventus in the process. Is Master of Masters' prophecy inevitable? Or can you create your own fate?
1. 1: Something Amiss

"It feels like I've been here before." Sora commented as he looked up at a twisted, desolate castle.

"Somehow, I get the same feeling." Goofy said as they approached the doors.

"Me too." Donald agreed. Sora looked down at the mysterious keyblade in his hand. It had a green-black blade, and a red and white guard.

"Aqua..." Sora paused, a deep pain at the very name had squeezed his chest, but continued, "Aqua said to 'go to the chamber of awakening'... and this keyblade appeared when I wondered how to get there... Is this where the chamber is?" He asked hopefully.

"May your heart be your guiding key." Goofy reassured Sora.

"It's lead us this far!" Donald echoed proudly.

Sora smiled at the encouragement of his good friends and felt his keyblade move and glow. He went with his instincts; he leapt back from the doors of the castle and held his keyblade out to the door. His friends scrambled well out of the way as a circle of light appeared at the tip of the keyblade, and a beam shot from it to the castle doors.

Instead of unlocking the door, the very castle itself seemed to absorb the beam, and glowed and re-arranged itself into a symmetrical castle. Things shattered in a musical fashion, and the world trembled as if it itself was trying to break free from the darkness that had settled within.

"Whoah!" Sora, Donald, and Goofy cried, and steps formed under their feet. Donald yelped, and both Sora and Goofy caught him before he could topple over. Looking around as magic shards, like dandelion seeds, floated past their faces, they all realized that there was a huge, lush world around them instead of a barren cliffed grassland. Somehow, Sora felt like he was home again.

They had a moment of awe at such a beautiful place until monsters appeared.

"Nobodies, Heartless, AND Unversed? Now THAT'S a welcome party!" Sora laughed, getting into a stance and summoning his keyblade. Donald and Goofy nodded and got into their own stances, summoning their staff and shield.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy had fought together for so long that it was second nature for the two sidekicks to combine their magic with Sora's. The result was a sparkling array of magic, one that cast floating christmas-like lights in a rainbow around them, and created objects for Sora to use. Sora wasn't fighting anymore-he was joyfully playing with magic and his enemies were desolated in the process.

With one final slash of Sora's keyblade, it was over. The magic lights sparkled into oblivion. He was barely winded, in fact he was nearly bouncing in place as he waved and called Donald and Goofy to hurry up.

"We're comin' we're comin'!" Donald grumped, and Sora grinned. He sprinted up to the doors, which opened inwards, revealing a huge staircase. Before the doors were completely open, Sora ran inside. His eagerness to explore and try to figure out what this place was was interrupted the moment he stepped onto the staircase. His chest burned, and briefly a wave of pain and dizziness forced him into a kneeling position. His chest flashed with light. As quickly as it came, it left him, almost apologetically.

"Sora!"

"Sora, are you okay?!"

"I'm alright, I…" He forced himself back to his feet, sprinting ahead, an almost unbearable sense of urgency overriding him, "We have to hurry!"

"Where? Sora!" Goofy asked.

"Wait up!"

Oddly enough, there was not any nobodies or heartless. But there were unversed, and their numbers did make up for the absence. The gilded hallway was basked in sparkling light as Sora and his friends attacked the monsters.

Wave after wave left him a bit winded, but it was nothing Sora, Donald, and Goofy wasn't used to. Sora went on ahead, and his speed was almost too fast for his two companions to follow.

"If this number of unversed are here, then Vanitas can't be too far behind." Sora said, and frowned, wondering where in the world that thought had come from as he had not been really thinking of anything but fighting through the unversed and getting to his goal.

Wherever that may be.

At the end of the hallway was a couple of huge boss-type unversed, Sora briefly considered running past them, but quickly realized that would be really counter-productive. He twirled his keyblade and charged it with a magic order, making the keyblade itself transform and turn into a variety of metal loops with a vending machine claw-game grip that wrapped around his arms.

"Come on!" He challenged, and charged ahead. He whipped the claws- through the air, through the ground (his magic quickly fixed the floor), and sometimes just outright spinning around him. When Donald and Goofy finally caught up, Sora had already toppled one unversed. They kept fighting until they had defeated it.

Behind the bosses was a huge hall. Sora was winded but sprinted into it, his keyblade in his hands. The world seemed to slow as he looked around at the stained glass on the wall, the intricate carvings, and finally the three thrones at one end. Seated on the middle throne was a very familiar boy.

Sora walked, and then ran towards him. He slowed to a stop in front of him… "Ventus, you're Ventus aren't you?" He asked, wondering why this boy wasn't waking up.

"So this is Ventus?" Goofy said curiously.

"Hey! Wake up! There's monsters here!" Donald quacked.

"Well, I guess I gotta wake him up!" Sora announced, "I'll be right back guys!"

"Right!"

Sora stepped back and carefully pointed his keyblade at Ventus. A small keyhole appeared, and a beam shot from it. Slowly, his body sank to his knees and his companions caught him as he fell asleep.

Ventus stood at the seashore, looking around at the what was his resting place for a very long time. He felt a pang of unease, of homesickness, he would most likely not see this sanctuary again, but he couldn't stay curled up in the light- Sora's light- forever.

/Are you sure?/ A voice asked him.

"I'm certain." Ventus replied, reaching up to the stars above and drawing on the strength Sora had let him recover.

Sora was brought to complete awareness as he felt a sensation of drifting down. He was still holding his keyblade. His feet tapped against the stained glass floor.

"Ventus!" He called, "Where are you?!"

"Here." Ventus suddenly appeared, glowing orbs surrounding him. He yawned, and smiled, "Hey, Sora."

"Hey!" Sora greeted, he had a lot he wanted to say but that had to wait! "... Let's wake your body up, okay?"

"I… think I'm starting to wake up, but I seemed to have sucked you into my heart in the process," Ventus admitted sheepishly, "But you can make your way out, ri-"

Suddenly, his eyes grew wide. "Sora, stay here! Something's wrong!"

"I'll help!" Sora offered immediately.

"No, you have to stay here." Ventus replied sternly, "Right now, for some reason, we're surrounded by darkness. Transferring back to your body would be dangerous."

"Oh, but, I st-" Sora blinked as Ven suddenly vanished. He frowned and crossed his arms in a huff, he didn't need to be protected! But… he wanted to trust Ven, so eventually he sat down and waited.

It took some time to wake up from a 12-year-long sleep, however magical it was. Ventus remembered when Sora was put in that sleep, and his initial grogginess was reflected tenfold on his body; it made him drift back and forth until he realized, faintly, he was moving. The sense of darkness tingled against his skin, provoking a deep sense of unease that forced his eyes to open.

Red eyes met his gaze. Ventus twitched violently, knowing those eyes, and an intense set of pins-and-needles went throughout his entire body. What he thought had been a blanket slowly tightened around his torso, intensifying the pain but relieving the duration at the same time. Ventus gasped and started to struggle in earnest. He was unable to identify this unversed-

"Good morning, Ventus." A familiar low voice greeted, and Ventus felt the monster stop walking and lower him. Vanitas loomed over him stiffly, still wearing his mask and a black coat.

A/N: Thanks for reading, this chapter was mostly setting things up. Maybe this would be better named as a 'prologue'?


	2. 2: Inner Light

A/N: Fair warning, Vanitas is a bit creepy. This story is a lot of fun to write!

Immediately, Ventus looked around, trying to find where Sora's body was, but Vanitas stepping even closer forced him to focus on him. If his arms were free, he would be able to punch him in the face at this distance.

"Where is Sora?!" Ventus demanded, "What did you do with him?!"

"You should know well where he is." Vanitas replied. Ventus glared at him and opened his mouth to retort but Vanitas just laughed at him, "Hehehahah! I didn't /kill/ him." He mocked, "It was an opportunistic time," He explained in his even tone, "His heart was in your body, and his sidekicks are seriously /weak/. I was able to take you and Sora away immediately."

"Where is his body, then." Ventus growled, since Vanitas seemed particularly chatty.

"Now you're asking the right questions. I left it behind with the duck and dog. I couldn't snatch that up, then you'd be able to revive him." Vanitas had a smirk in his voice. He was way too close. Ventus closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and forced his magic on overdrive.

Vanitas jumped back as Ventus erupted into a beam of light, destroying the unversed that was holding him. Maybe it would have been smarter to be tied up until he figured out what in the world Vanitas wanted, but Ventus had enough.

The column of light flickered out and Ventus landed, taking wary steps back on shaky legs as he flung out his arm to summon his keyblade, Lost Memory. He looked for an exit, but all he saw in this place was blue and orange smoke and dozens of unversed. There had to be a way out!

"There isn't a way out of this, Ventus." Vanitas said matter-of-factly, "Come with me, unless you want us to demonstrate how weakened you've become after twelve years asleep." He took no battle position, but the unversed were closing in more tightly around them. Vanitas was serious.

Dread settled into the pit of Ventus's stomach. He had trouble /standing/, fighting was going to involve a lot of pain and falling over. A frown settled on his face. So be it! He would not surrender so easily!

"What do you want?! Revenge?!" Ventus questioned, glancing around at the unversed briefly. Which one was going to strike first?

"Revenge? No, idiot." Vanitas tilted his head at him as if he had said the sky was purple.

"Then what?! You know I won't forge the X-Blade with you! Do you want me to destroy our hearts again?!" Ventus spat.

"Forging the keyblade is inevitable." Vanitas replied easily, and at Ventus's continued glare he continued, "Master knows of a prophecy... seven lights and thirteen darknesses will clash and create the X-Blade."

"That's not going to happen! Not this... prophecy, nor am I going to be part of it!" Ventus quickly denied, and looked up at the sky. That was the only spot that was clear of enemies-

"Going somewhere?" Vanitas asked with a laugh in his voice, and Ventus slapped the pauldron on his arm. He closed his eyes as the pauldron shined and he was encased in his armor.

The unversed surged forward and Ventus threw his keyblade, which spun and flashed before turning into his hoverboard. He crouched slightly, gathering up his magic. The unversed's claws were inches away from him when he launched up and grabbed onto his hoverboard, which shot up into the sky. His exhilaration at the narrow escape was immediately pushed down when a large unversed surged ahead of him and a wave of dizziness made him crash into the creature.

Both the Metamorphosis and Ventus let out a cry of pain, but Ventus quickly recovered and jumped off the creature. His hoverboard caught him, and he had to kneel and grab the sides because the world was spinning too much. /No! Don't faint! I have to keep going!/ He screamed at himself, not trusting that Vanitas wouldn't kill him. He shot magic at the unversed that came too close, but eventually had to completely charge through as he focused completely on his speed. He was very grateful his armor was on, or else he would have been scratched by the unversed's spikes he slammed into. He knew the impacts would bruise and hurt like crazy later, if there was a 'later'.

Eventually, the corridor ended, he went out a black portal… and Ventus had to swerve to avoid hitting a black skyscraper. He slowed down, confused as to where he was, and that mistake had unversed tackle him out of the air. The edges of his vision went black when he hit the ground. Ventus's breaths quickened as he witnessed a flashback- this was just like the time those floods grabbed him when he thought he had defeated Vanitas. When Vanitas was just about to fuse with him. That sensation… his useless screams, he was shouting and calling his keyblade back to him, he never wanted that to happen again-

/Ventus! If you needed my help you could've asked me!/ Sora's voice broke through Ventus's panic, and strength flooded into his body. An faint apparition of him appeared, a hand touching his shoulder.

/Sora!/ Hope flooded into Ventus, and he reached for his magic again-

Cold metal against his neck brought Ventus's thoughts to a screeching halt, even as Sora continued to lend him power. Somehow, the unversed had taken off his helmet in his struggle and Vanitas had his keyblade under his chin. It wasn't /sharp/, but the threat was very much there. Unversed used Ventus's freeze-up to wrap around and restrain him to the ground, on his knees.

"I know you'll do anything for your values. Your pride." Vanitas said in a eerily gentle tone, tilting Ventus's head up to look at him, "But you're not the only one at risk here. If I destroy your body, then Sora would be utterly helpless…"

The despair and anger at such a proposition made Ventus flinch and truly stay still, his breaths coming in and out through his clenched teeth. Vanitas lowered his keyblade from him, and Ventus lowered his head, forcing himself to calm down with deeper breaths.

"Why are you so adamant that I go with you? Is the battle starting already?" Ventus tugged on his monster restraints, but they had a very good hold on him.

"That's not it…" Vanitas stepped towards him, and Ventus leaned back in dismay. To his surprise, Vanitas knelt to his eye level, "It's because you're completely insignificant. At the end of all this, there will be no one left to miss you…" Vanitas paused as Ventus growled, baring his teeth at him, "So I'm taking you away. You're mine."

"No! I'm /not/ yours!" Ventus erupted into light again, refusing to be broken, and Vanitas knelt in place and blocked the magic with his keyblade. He and his unversed were pushed away again.

The light faded into a colorful glow, and Ventus felt Sora's full support. In a mixture of nostalgia of a forgotten memory and the comfort of having his friend with him in such a dark place, Ventus held out both his hands and summoned two keyblades- one was Lost Memory, the other the Kingdom Key. Both he spun so they were backhanded.

"You've always gotten stronger when I've shown you mercy!" Vanitas laughed, "...I'll have to stop messing around and show you your place." His tone was low, determined now. His dark aura appeared, summoning more unversed to add to the dozens around them in these dark streets.


End file.
